{"id":4342,"date":"2018-12-19T20:30:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T12:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4342"},"modified":"2018-12-17T18:15:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T10:15:26","slug":"daryl-lim-on-yehs-yang-mu-at-cha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4342","title":{"rendered":"Daryl Lim on Yeh’s Yang Mu at Cha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Over at Cha<\/em>, Daryl Lim reviews Hawk of the Mind: Collected Poems<\/a><\/em> (Columbia University Press), the selected poems of Yang Mu \u694a\u7267, edited by Michelle Yeh. Though Lim credits Yang’s poetry as “lyrical, urbane, cosmopolitan and deeply humanist,” he’s less impressed with the volume:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not told whether Collected<\/em> in fact represents Yang Mu\u2019s entire poetic oeuvre, or whether the editor has made selections. If so (which I suspect to be the case), it is also unclear how the editor went about making these choices or what organising principle lies behind them. I gather the poems are arranged chronologically. (But I can\u2019t be sure.) Finally, the foreword tells me that I, the reader, will through engagement with Yang Mu\u2019s poetry, \u201cemerge more aware of the world and what it means to be human.\u201d As it is though, I am still unaware of the shape of Yang Mu\u2019s poetic corpus and career.
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As for the translations,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No less than eleven translators are listed in the final pages of the book … I wish then that the editor, Michelle Yeh, had also written about the possible issues arising from this: did she consider whether having eleven translators for the work of one poet might lead to issues of coherence or dissonance? Did she consider re-translating (she is one of the translators) some of the poems? Did she edit any of the translations? Without the benefit of the original texts on the facing page (or even the original Chinese titles), it is difficult for the reviewer to judge whether the diversity of translators has had any effect on the final product. It is very difficult to look up specific poems. (There is also no index of poems or first lines.)
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Not that Lim names them, of course (other than Arthur Sze, in one example). Then again, neither does Columbia UP on its web page for the book.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here <\/a>for the full review.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at Cha, Daryl Lim reviews Hawk of the Mind: Collected Poems (Columbia University Press), the selected poems of Yang Mu \u694a\u7267, edited by Michelle Yeh. Though Lim credits Yang’s poetry as “lyrical, urbane, cosmopolitan and deeply humanist,” he’s less … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,814,16],"tags":[227,2058,538,659],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-182","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1309,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1309","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":0},"title":"Three Poems by Yang Mu","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Asymptote has published three poems by 2012 Newman Prize-winner Yang Mu \u694a\u7267, translated by Michelle Yeh & Arthur Sze. The sequence begins: In the zone of rain shadows, at the moment of losing My winding way, the star is the only guide Your contemplation is an ocean, you are endless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4749,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4749","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":1},"title":"Mitchell on Yip’s Arrivals and Departures","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Reid Mitchell reviews by Wai-Lim Yip's Arrivals and Departures for Cha Writing for Cha, Reid Mitchell reviews Arrivals and Departures: Poems, Memoir, and Chronology (Musical Stone, 2017) by Wai-Lim Yip \u8449\u7dad\u5ec9. He writes: As I wish to encourage everyone to read Yip\u2019s Arrivals and Departures, please permit me to end\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1263,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1263","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":2},"title":"Yang Mu wins Newman Prize for Chinese Literature","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Taiwan-born and -raised poet Yang Mu \u694a\u7267 has won the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature from the\u00a0University of Oklahoma. Yang was nominated by UC Davis professor Michelle Yeh, co-translator with Lawrence R. Smith of Yang's collection No Trace of the Gardener (another volume, translated by Joseph Allen, was published as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4210,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4210","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":3},"title":"Nan Da on Recent Chinese Poetry in Translation","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Nan Z. Da knows everything. In a cover story for the Times Literary Supplement titled \"Poetry of the suicide note,\" or alternately, \"It is useless to live,\" she reviews five recent books of Chinese poetry--both modern and premodern--in English translation: Hawk of the Mind, the collected poems of Yang Mu\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-tls.co.uk\/s3\/tls-prod\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nan-Da-COVER-605x770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1804,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1804","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":4},"title":"2013 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature: Banquet video of Yang Mu Acceptance Speech","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/C2JTuhLoWKw http:\/\/youtu.be\/ZISj5Zj1OVk http:\/\/youtu.be\/vTmqOLocZAI","rel":"","context":"In "Videos"","block_context":{"text":"Videos","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/C2JTuhLoWKw\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4611,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4611","url_meta":{"origin":4342,"position":5},"title":"\u201cTiananmen Thirty Years On\u201d feature at Cha","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cTiananmen Thirty Years On\u201d at Cha Announcing the June\/July issue of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, the \u201cTiananmen Thirty Years On\u201d feature, edited by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Lucas Klein, along with a special feature of poems by and in mourning of Meng Lang \u5b5f\u6d6a. The following CONTRIBUTORS have generously\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.asiancha.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Tiananmen_CHA_Feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4342"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4353,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions\/4353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}